The present application concerns winding wire coils into the slots of a ferromagnetic core of a stator or of an armature for a dynamo-electric machine such as an electric motor, a generator, an alternator, or the like.
Wire winding machines are used to wind wire onto the ferromagnetic cores of dynamo-electric machine parts, such as armatures and stators. The cores have slots into which wire must be wound to form wire coils. In operation of these parts, current is passed through the coils.
To form the coils, wire is dispensed from a rotating arm called a flyer. The flyer rotates about the core repeatedly, depositing wire turns to form complete coils. A winding guide is used to guide the wire as it is dispensed from the flyer and wound into the core slots to form the coils.
In a core such as an armature core, slots extend longitudinally along the core and are evenly distributed about the circumference of the core. Coils are formed by winding wire into certain pairs of slots. Some cores have numerous slots and require several circumferential layers of coils. With such cores, the depths of the slots can be considerable and the pairs of slots into which the coils are wound can be spaced fairly close to one another (i.e., the angular separation between the slots in the pair is small). As a result, it is often difficult to wind wire deeply into the slots. In addition, the small angular separation of the slots causes the sides of the slots to be nearly parallel to each other. Because the sides are nearly parallel, there is a tendency for the wire to climb out of the slots, which may hinder the regular and orderly placement of the various layers of coils and may leave the bottom of the slots with fewer coil turns than desired.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved technique for winding wire into the slots of a ferromagnetic core for a dynamo-electric machine part.
This and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing a wire guide for guiding wire into the slots of the ferromagnetic core of a dynamo-electric machine part such as an armature or stator. The wire guide allows wire to be wound deeply into the slots while preventing the wire from climbing the sides of the slots. In particular, the wire guide has smooth outer guide surfaces that deposit wire deeply in the slots. The wire guide also has coil retention notches that prevent wire from climbing the side walls of the slots during coil winding.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.